AGAINST CHINA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 117, 20 May 1942, Page 7

AGAINST CHINA

BIG JAP. OFFENSIVE

Allied Planes Needed To Cope With Enemy

U.P.A. and Jirllis!i Wirelps>s.

Rec. 1.30 p.rft

LONDON, May 19,

A Chungking Government spokesman revealed increasing evidence that the Japanese were on the verge of a large-scale offensive against China. He described China's outlook in the immediate future as very grave.

'We need all possible help, especially in planes," he said, "to enable us to cope with the enemy on the \ unnan border. Likewise the situation in Chekiang is increasingly perilous, the enemy having reinforced the original 35,000 troops with whom they began the offensive there.

The Chungking official radio quoted a Central News statement that an unexplodecl gas bomb dropped by a Japanese aeroplane has been found in Shensi Province. The bomb weighed 2001b. It was 140 centimetres high and 27 centimetres thick and had been taken by a removal squad to anti-aircraft headquarters.

The west bank of the broad moun-tain-walled Salween River, barring the eastward advance of the Japanese up the Burma Road, has been cleared of the enemv and his columns wiped out or driven back to Lungling, says a Chungking message.

Some 250 miles southward, however, extremely heavy fighting is in progress, as reinforced Japanese troops have attacked from three directions in an apparent effort to drive up from Thailand between the Salween and the Mekong to flank the Salween defences.

The Japanese reverse along the Salween was announced after fierce artillery fire had been exchanged lor days across the formidable barrier, which the Japanese did not dare attempt crossing. A New Delhi communique states that Blenheims dropped high explosives on Kalewa, 140 miles northwest of Mandalay, yesterday. Among the targets were important waterways, barges and an ammunition dump.

The Royal Air Force carried out reconnaissance over northern Burma.